The Bedlam Report | ICW Brush Another Goose Analysis

By Doctor Bedlam

Well here we are again, and at a show two days before Christmas no less. Here we go, time for the good Doctor to look at ICW and give his frank opinion and I pull no punches.

I have noticed this time the queue has been moved to the other side of The Garage doors, makes more sense as it does not disrupt the businesses on the side they usually did line up and interestingly there was a lot less problems with queue jumping, strange isn’t it? It was a nice atmosphere with Christmas being so close, so lets go on with the article shall we?

Okay before I even get to the matches I have to say when Lionheart came out and delivered his first promo my heart sank, I fear his title reign will be the standard ICW dull babyface reign. Oh do not get me wrong, Lionheart is an awesome wrestler no doubt there and could have a great match with anyone but this whole “I want the best international wrestlers to compete against” thing is wrong on too many levels. Sure the upside is great matches with imported stars however there are a few problems here, Jester’s reign had this issue, while Devitt/Balor, Sabu and Matt Cross were big names (well to be honest I had never heard of Cross before his match with Jester) they seemed like the wrestling equivalent of football friendlies, great match ups between people you’d never usually see but lacking the drama and stuff of a properly competitive match up. Basically these potential matches against “international competition” probably means lots of very well done technical matches but due to the nature of it all will ultimately mean nothing in the long run, no feuding, no chance he will truly lose the title. Another issue is… what’s so wrong with the wrestlers ICW already has? These guys work hard, they deserve shots, I mean the Coffey’s, Joe Hendry, Whiplash, Grado (when he returns from panto), Wolfy, BT and several others surely deserve title shots and feuds with the belt? Surely bringing someone is is almost like a no confidence in the current roster to an extent? I’ve said it before I feel Dallas and the booking committee in ICW seem to be unable to book a face champion to save themselves, granted it’s harder than booking a heel champion but not impossible, but anyway on with the show…

Joe Coffey vs Liam Thomson – This was a fairly solid match, mind you what do you expect from the two men involved? Joe won and then went on the mic and made an interesting statement about the belt and division, is the Zero G division (such as it ever was to be honest) going to be a thing of the past? I do agree the belt itself looks a bit sorry for itself but is it about to be re-branded/renamed? Who knows?

Wolfgang vs Kenny Williams – This was again solid and was a match up we haven’t seen much of if not before, not really much I can add to it other than the style contrast worked well in this match, there is a danger that you make the smaller guy seem weak and any good offense he gets as looking lucky but not this time and that’s what made it more watchable, Kenny looked like he could use his strengths to compete against Wolfgang well.

Ravie Davie & Leyton Buzzard vs Kieran Kelly – Okay this was basically Dallas’s minions beating on Kieran Kelly for a while, there was no way Kieran was going to win. I’m going to be honest I am a bit perplexed by Dallas’s whole Mr McMahon-esque characters direction. I mean Mr McMahon went straight for his main event player, Stone Cold, and if Dallas is so concerned about controlling the direction of his company, why is he not concerned by who has his companies belt? I mean a feud with Lionheart would be amazing, Dallas trying to get the belt off Lionheart by throwing opponents he believes could easily defeat Lionheart and Lionheart using all his experience and ring mastery to keep it, now wouldn’t that make for more thrilling viewing than Lionheart’s “facing the best talents of the world” thing he’s apparently doing? Just saying.

Joe Hendry vs BT Gunn – I hope Joe Hendry being the chosen one of Dallas does indeed eventually lead to him getting the belt down the line (though could easily if they chose to, the guy deserves it), though I will be honest, the whole “Mark Dallas Rent Boy” thing is a little bit much, c’mon guys that’s the best chant we can do? Joe and BT are actually a good match up surprisingly enough and I hope we see them face off again.

P.O.D. vs The Kinky Party – Oh God when will The Kinky Party split, I’m sorry the team has ran its course, even the “the match won’t begin till they have finished their drink” thing, while funny and sporadic the first time just comes across as forced now, just split already please. As for the P.O.D. while yes a great tag team and all I get the feeling there are more deserving teams. The P.O.D. won but this match felt like a “lets get the rematch out of the way” sorta match.

Andy Wild vs Mark Coffey – This was a decent match and a surprising win for Andy Wild not really much to say about this only what does the future hold for either man, who knows, and it was nice to see the Wild Boys leader get another win.

Aaron Echo vs Kez Evans – This was a better match than I thought it would be and Aaron Echo is maturing well in ICW and Kez is definitely improving too. I would like to see Aaron get a run with some sort of belt, he has the ability and deserves a chance.

Little Miss Roxxy vs Viper – Roxxy was an interesting performer and it was good to see a new face in the female division however, and I know I will be slated for this, but I wasn’t too much of a fan. Don’t get me wrong, she had a great look and stuff but some things felt off. A lot of the moves looked like they had literally no impact at all and I’m not talking about the ones where she is doing the whole pantomime “oh no that didn’t work… I’m so screwed” bits she did, I’m meaning the moves that were supposed to hurt just, nothing, kinda detracted from the match a little. I can only hope it was just one of those matches, every wrestler has them.

The Kings of Catch vs The Purge – Okay this was an awesome match up, finally The Purge entertained me, they showed some character in this match and The Kings of Catch showed once again why not only do they deserve the tag belts yesterday but are the most over guys on the entire roster, the match had action, drama, comedy, everything, The Kings of Catch won but in the end we all did, if you have On Demand… just watch the match okay? Now… why are you still reading this? It won’t go anywhere! Go! Now!

A few things I wish to say is I am curious as to what ICW’s goals truly are business-wise, I was looking around the garage and while it was nearly Christmas I did notice that The Garage is quite small and only holds a few hundred and I wonder if ICW has any hope of returning to the Hydro and filling it to a reasonable level it may need to try and build up by first seeing if they can get a bigger venue AND bigger crowds to the Fight Club tapings THEN getting big venues like the Hydro for special events, there have been times I feel ICW tried to run before it can walk, there is so much more, but that’s for another time.

I know some people will be thinking “if you know so much why don’t you start your own company?/why aren’t you a booker?” I’m sorry but I have been a wrestling fan for a long, long time, plus it would foolish to dismiss my thoughts simply because i’m not “in the business” sometimes it needs an outsider to notice thing that are and aren’t working, if i was given the book could I book ICW better? I’m going to be controversial and say… probably yes… or at least it may make more sense. I’m sorry but as I have said before it’s not the wrestlers that are the problem it’s the way they are being booked fans are more forgiving if at least the story makes sense (or if it doesn’t make sense at least be so entertaining no-one cares) and right now it’s not. To be honest I could write a whole article about ICW’s booking and my thoughts and, you know what, maybe I will.

This Fight Club was all in all a nice little pre-Christmas event that did what it was supposed to do, entertain, and it was a great night.